Some students walk to school five days a week. Others take the bus, grab a lift or ride a bike.

Not so for Carlos Camarena. He goes to a boarding school. Every school-day morning, the Grade 9 student wakes up in his bed in a stately school residence. Instead of planning for his morning commute, he just has to whip on his uniform, grab a hot breakfast and stroll across campus to attend his classes.

It’s as simple as that.

This is Camarena’s first year at Stanstead College. He’s never attended a boarding school before – and he’s loving every minute of it.

“It’s been the adventure of my life,” said the 15-year-old native of Mexico City. “My best year.”

That’s not to say boarding school doesn’t take getting used to. Camarena’s first adjustment was moving to a Canadian village. After all, he comes from a city whose metropolitan area has a population of more than 21 million. That’s more than 3,000 times the size of minuscule Stanstead, which is on the Eastern Townships side of the Canada-U.S. border.

“I still can’t believe that Stanstead is this small,” he said. “I like it.”

And then there was the size of Stanstead College itself. The last school Camarena attended in Mexico has a student population of more than 2,000. Stanstead College has just 180 students – a mixture of boarding students, and day students who commute in from nearby communities. It may be small, but that’s part of what makes it special.

“I love that it’s a small school and you get a lot of attention from teachers and that you’re with all your friends,” Camarena said. “I’m impressed. There’s no comparison.”

And while Stanstead’s student community is small enough for practically everybody to get to know each other, it also represents the four corners of the world.

“There are a dozen nationalities here, if not 20,” said Stanstead teacher Eric Grenier, who is the director of student life at the school. “It’s quite a melting pot.”

These include Asians from Thailand, Hong Kong, the People’s Republic of China, and a few Japanese. There are students from Africa and Latin America – including about 30 from Mexico alone.

Chantal Bedard, a 14-year-old day student in Grade 9 who rides in from Vermont every school day, puts it this way:

“We have people from everywhere. We have a map at school where kids put a pin where they come from, and if you look at it, there are kids from all around the world.”

Scratch the surface at Stanstead and you’ll see that a boarding school offers more than a bed, a roof and kids from all over. It’s a unique experience that offers excellence in education and sports, a rewarding social experience, solid networking opportunities, and happy memories for life.

But why would a student fly across borders and time zones to go to a boarding school in Quebec?

“In Mexico, I went to an English school for nine years,” said Camarena. “I wanted to improve my French, too. Stanstead offered the option of French. And a lot of my friends went here; they recommended it.”

Now before you assume that boarding-school life is just like you see it in the movies – the way J.K. Rowling portrayed it in books and on the screen – take it from Camarena: it is! And that’s something he didn’t expect.

“It’s completely like Harry Potter,” he said. “I saw the movies and imagined it must be completely different. But you live in a residence with all your friends. You have a roommate you live with all year. There’s a cafeteria where you go with your plate. And there are activities on the weekend and sports – everybody’s doing sports. It’s just like the movies.”

But the first adjustment students like Camarena have to make is getting used to being far from family and home.

“The first two days, you don’t even realize it. You feel like you’re just gone for the weekend,” he said. “Then after a while, you realize you’re alone and far from your family. But after a few weeks, you forget about the fact that you’re away from home.”

The transition to boarding-school life here is usually smooth, thanks, in part, to special efforts made by school faculty and staff from the day new students arrive.

“At the beginning of the year, it can be tough,” said Grenier. “We have orientation. We try to keep them busy, right up to 11 p.m., for the first few weeks.”

Students are promptly plunged into activities, like outdoor games, campus tours, swimming days at nearby Lake Memphremagog and visits to a clubhouse in town. And, of course, new students are encouraged to stay in close contact with family back home.

“At first, they call home every day,” Grenier said. “Then, the calls become less frequent. We tell parents, ‘You’ll probably hear from your kids several times a day, then a few times a week, a couple of times a week, once a week. And then you’ll have to call them.’ ”

On extremely rare occasions, some students decide that life at a boarding school isn’t for them.

“It doesn’t happen often,” said Grenier. “I can’t remember the last time we have a kid leave. But once every three or four years, one might get too homesick.”

For many students, if there is one thing that softens the blow that comes from being far from home, it is the new friendships they form over the academic year.

“The best friends I ever made, they’re here,” Camarena said. “They’re more like brothers and sisters, because you live with them.”

Seventeen-year-old Ngwa Numfor agrees 100 per cent. He has been going to Stanstead for four years now, and he has made friendships for life.

“You see them before you go to bed,” said the Grade 12 student, who was born in England and raised in New Jersey. “When you wake up, you see them. You get closer than you do at public schools, for the most part. You meet people you’re going to know after college. You get more open-minded to people from all over the world.”

Even the food on offer at the cafeteria was eye-opening, he said.

“They do a good job of doing things differently every day,” he said. “I never thought I’d ever eat sushi. I never ate shepherd’s pie before. But when you live here, you get used to it.”

Numfor, who is passionate about science and is considering a medical career, also enjoys the strong sports program typically offered at boarding schools like Stanstead.

“I play football,” he said. “That’s my favourite sport so far this year.”

He also plays basketball and rugby, and used to play on the championship junior boys’ soccer team.

Another thing Numfor likes about boarding-school living is the maturity and independence it has instilled in him.

“There’s a sense of freedom,” he said. “No more parents to tell me what time to go to bed and what time to do my homework. You almost feel you’re grown up and away from home.”

As a day student, Chantal Bedard has an objective opinion about boarders. And she figures they’re well adjusted and doing fine.

Camarena certainly isn’t complaining. But he has only planned to go to Stanstead for one year, which is winding down fast.

“I’m going back to Mexico next year,” he said. “It’s starting to sink in that this will be the last few weeks of my experience here. I only have two months and that feels like a short time. I’m going to have to push hard to get the most out of it.”

Numfor, too, will graduate this year and move on – once he chooses from among the numerous universities that have accepted him. (Stanstead claims a 100-per-cent university-acceptance rate, according to Grenier.)

“It’s kind of sad, actually,” he said. “Because you make the friends that you’re not going to lose for a while here. A lot of the kids here, we grew up together for four years. The people that you meet here, and the teachers, they have an impact on your life. It’s kind of sad, having to move on.”

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